The Lawyer Equation
by txfantasystar
Summary: Eliot could totally win this case. He's just that good. Now a chaptered story. AU starting at "The Juror #6 Job"
1. The Lawyer Equation

Disclaimer: I do not own Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt's _Angel_ or John Rogers, Chris Downey, and Dean Devlin's_ Leverage_.

A/N: I was watching "The Juror #6 Job" with one of my best friends earlier today and we started to talk about the "what if"s that it brings to mind. I mean, Chris Kane played a (semi-evil) lawyer on _Angel_, so we totally felt that he could have won that trial. XD So, this came out of it. Complete crack-fic at first, but turned into something pretty good, I think.

* * *

The Lawyer Equation

* * *

Jury duty. Parker had found a job at jury duty. Which, of course, meant a court. And a court room. And (of course) lawyers. This was a problem for Eliot. Not because he hated the legal system. Not even because he didn't like lawyers. But because it brought him a little too close to his past. A past he had tried very very hard to put behind him (where it really did belong). But court rooms always brought on the danger of being recognized (it had only been around seven years after all since he quit Wolfram & Hart; although he had done that thing in LA four years ago with Angel to try to bring them down). Or being suddenly found by what was left of Wolfram & Hart. Seeing as he had played a large part in their somewhat-demise, that wasn't something he was looking foreword to. At all.

See, Eliot Spencer avoided court rooms like he avoided the supernatural (except for a few healing spells, which were useful to hide how injured he actually got on jobs from the team).

But, Parker had found a case. At jury duty. Which, again, meant a court. Eliot almost wanted to strangle her, but he actually _liked_ the little thief. She reminded him of his little sister. Just a little bit. And also Lilah, which was strangely comforting. And a little bit of Darla, in that serenely sadistic way. So, needless to say, he wouldn't hurt her. Because it was rare for Eliot to find someone he actually _liked_, much less someone who could remind him of his past in such a way to make him appreciate it a little more.

But that wasn't the point. The point was that Parker had found a case. And it was a trial. A trial that looked really bad for Gloria Vargas. Eliot had been on the other side of that table way too many times. He knew exactly what would happen (minus the demons, of course, since Wolfram & Hart was not representing Live Herbally). But the same thing would happen. Gloria Vargas would get nothing because of dirty dealing from the people running the show for Quint. And now they had to intervene.

The thing was, none of the team knew the insides and outs of the law (or the courtroom) like he did. And he couldn't help. Because he didn't want to give himself away.

But as the meeting went on Eliot felt himself growing agitated. He was the most able of all of these people to turn the defense to mush, but they didn't know it.

"…we have to win this case for Gloria," Sophie finished as Eliot started paying attention again.

"We can't. We got into this way too late. The best we can hope for is to con Quint into a settlement," Nate responded.

Eliot resisted rolling his eyes. He could totally win this trial. You know, if he could step foot in a court room without causing trouble.

"Earnshaw ran a credit check on Alice White."

"Who's Alice White?"

"You are!"

"She's going to buy the jury," Eliot realized. Playing dirty the really easy way. That made things…well, easy.

"We'll just have to steal it first," Nate said.

* * *

So, of course, that's what the team tries to do. But (of course) it all goes wrong. Mostly because Eliot isn't running things (but, then again, he hadn't told the team he could help, which he was actually feeling a little guilty about now).

Eliot kinda wants to punch something but he doesn't have time. After the Vargas lawyer disappears, Nate automatically goes to Hardison to play the new lawyer. Eliot barely resisted telling Nate he was actually a lawyer (and honestly Nate probably wouldn't have believed him anyways) and Hardison immediately gets to work creating an identity as Eliot debates the pros and cons of doing it himself since he _actually went to law school_ and therefore could _actually win_ in a trial.

He debates until the last minute. And damn Nate Ford for making him grow a conscience.

He put on a suit he kept in the back of his closet and shoved Hardison into a janitorial closet at the courtroom, stealing the younger man's briefcase. He could hear Hardison yelling at everyone through the comms as he headed into the court room, but ignored it in favor of trying not to hyperventilate. As soon as he said his name, Earnshaw would look him up. It would get pinged by what was left of Wolfram & Hart and they would come after him. Hopefully his name would scare Earnshaw. And hopefully he hadn't gotten too rusty. He needed to win this. For Gloria Vargas (and to prove that he could use his skills as an evil corporate lawyer for good).

"I'm sorry I'm late, Your Honor," he apologized, relaxing as he heard Hardison escape the closet too late to stop him.

"Eliot, you don't have an alias!" Hardison hissed angrily as he came in the back of the court room.

"Lindsey McDonald. I'm the new attorney for the plaintiff," Eliot announced (partly to rub it in Hardison's face), organizing his thoughts. He could win this.

He heard Hardison stuttering quietly in the back of the courtroom. "Who is that? I didn't make that up. How does he—"

"Hardison, shhh. Let Eliot concentrate. Since he went completely off the rails and ignored my plan and is probably going to ruin everything," Nate replied, voice incredibly angry.

Eliot ignored both of them in favor of introducing himself to his new client. He shared a secret smile with himself as he knew Earnshaw's people would be looking him up right now and seeing that he was actually a defense lawyer. For cases like this, but on a bigger scale. That should scare them. He knew _all _their tricks.

When Nate and Sophie walked in to sit next to Hardison in the back of the room, he could _feel_ Nate glaring. So fine. Nate didn't like it when Eliot didn't follow the plan. But he'd totally thank him later.

Besides, at this point Eliot really didn't care about Nate's poor hurt feelings. He didn't work for Nate right now. He worked for Gloria Vargas (for free, and god did that kill him on the inside part of him that was still a slightly evil lawyer).

"Okay, Eliot. You want to be the lawyer, fine. But you need to stall the trial so Quint has time to take Sophie's offer and settle the case," Nate instructed. Eliot almost laughed.

Instead, he turned back to Gloria and took her hand. "Gloria, I promise I will win this trial for you and your family," he said, smiling at her and she nodded with a small worried smile.

"Eliot! You can't win this trial by going full steam ahead! I need you to stall!" Nate insisted quietly.

Eliot had had enough, so he turned slightly to the side to hiss quietly into the comms, "Settlement doesn't get Gloria nearly as much as winning the case in court will. And stop talking. I haven't done this in a while; I need to concentrate."

"What are you talking about, Eliot?" Nate demanded, but Eliot simply shushed him and went back to the trial. He had a witness to put on the stand and a trial to win.

The witness that he had up first was from the previous lawyer's case. Eliot was going to find his own medical expert. Because come on, he needed someone who looked trustworthy and was able to make everything he said sound factual and medical and be easy to understand. He had a guy in mind. But this first witness was just a friend of the family, talking about how nice Ernesto was and how perfect the family was and how hard it was for everyone without him. Personally, Eliot thought it was all bullshit (never would he have ever put a witness like her on the stand at any other trial, but then again, he was used to being on the other side), but the jury seemed touched by her testimony so Eliot counted it as a win.

Except when she broke down in tears during cross-examination when she got offended by the callousness of the defense (Eliot had made many of these types of witnesses cry on stand in his life, or cower because they knew that he had found something that would sound bad for them). Eliot objected on the grounds of badgering the witness just because he felt slightly bad for her (and he never would have _before_ he had joined up with stupid Nate Ford and his stupid Robin Hood team) and was surprisingly sustained.

So that actually wound up okay. The jury kind of hated the defense now. Which was more points in his favor. When the witness left the stand, the defense lawyer got a funny look on his face. Eliot smiled a little. That was probably Earnshaw telling him to get over to the warehouse to discuss, well, Eliot. Or Lindsey McDonald, as it were. That would be confusing. He had worked a few cases in the past seven years, whenever it related to a job, but for the most part it would be very confusing for them to wonder why he was there.

Defense called for lunch.

Eliot held back a real grin.

He told Gloria he'd see her after lunch (he had to go get his new medical expert, after all; luckily he knew a guy who would do it on short notice as a favor to him who was perfect for this kind of thing) and left the courtroom, only to get grabbed by Hardison on the way out.

"What the Hell, man? I created an identity for myself and everything and you just stuff me in a closet and take over? And who the Hell's Lindsey McDonald?" he yammered as he walked next to Eliot.

Eliot glared. "Lindsey McDonald is a lawyer. You'd know that if you checked on that computer of yours."

"You can't just steal someone's identity! It falls apart when someone…oh…" Hardison stopped, looking at the screen of the small laptop he had pulled out to check Eliot's identity. "It's _you_. _You're _Lindsey McDonald."

"Yeah. Otherwise what happened today never would have worked," Eliot supplied, still marching towards his medical friend's office.

"But—Eliot Spencer isn't an alias. I checked it out. He's a real person…" Hardison stammered.

"You think you're the only person I know who's able to make CIA level fake identities?" Eliot responded shortly as they finally reached the office. "Hold on." Eliot went inside to explain his case quickly and let the guy look over the documents to prepare for court after lunch was over.

When he came back out Hardison was standing quietly and waiting. "So…?"

Eliot sighed. "Look, I used to be a lawyer. Criminal Defense. I quit…seven years ago, I think. I was tired of defending these guys in court. All of the making up lies and stories and silencing witnesses and doing anything to win…it was getting to be a bit much. But I know how this stuff works. So, I decided I should step in."

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Nate questioned from wherever he was.

Eliot shrugged, "Look, the firm I used to work for? They're bad people. They're probably sending someone over this way right now to try to kill me after my name showed up in court today. They don't like it when somebody tries to leave, much less succeeds like I did."

Hardison blinked rapidly. "You serious? Are you serious?"

"I can handle it," Eliot responded. On second thought, he was probably a bit rusty on the supernatural end of things. "Probably."

Hardison's eyes widened.

Eliot got a little bit more worried.

* * *

In court that afternoon Eliot and his medical guy breezed through all the evidence. Cross examination went well and everything looked in their favor (except for Nate mumbling in the back about his plan and how they should really listen to him). The jury believed his expert and they looked comforted by his demeanor and his easy way of explaining things. Cross examination couldn't get anywhere they wanted with him and he was sent off the stand. Eliot grinned and thanked his guy. This was going well (he would be worried, but he'd always been just that good).

Lunch had been early, so they still had a lot of time left in court today (Nate was still mumbling about stalling). Eliot rested his case and the defense called their first witness. A guy that worked for the company or something. His testimony was along the lines of how he was an assistant to the guy who made the FastLife formula and he would never help make something that would kill people (if that was their strategy, it sucked and they really should have gotten the _actual chemist_ up there).

The jury actually _liked_ the witness, which Eliot hadn't counted on. So he absolutely _destroyed _him in cross. Eliot wasn't used to not having the spells as backup and he hadn't thought much about this guy (he'd been more worried about the defense's medical expert). But a couple of questions revealed that he was there because the actual chemist was busy. When Eliot pushed he realized the guy had never actually handled the formula, but just ran things around. So then he humiliated the guy by calling him lazy and proclaiming that he _couldn't know_ if FastLife was dangerous if he never handled the formula and just ran stupid errands all day. The guy stuttered and broke down, insisting he didn't know it would kill anyone and that he was sorry, effectively turning himself into a pro-plaintiff witness. Score for Eliot. The jury still liked the guy, but now his testimony helped Eliot instead of the defense.

The defense looked incredibly upset as they called their medical expert. A guy who actually made Eliot feel uncomfortable, so the jury couldn't have liked him much either. He could hear Hardison humming as he tapped away on his computer back in the office.

"Dude, Eliot! This guy's on the US No Fly list," Hardison announced.

Eliot grinned. It was kind of like having a mini-Wolfram & Hart in his ear, except Hardison wasn't evil (that Eliot knew of). He could totally use this.

So he did. The jury's just a bunch of people after all, and they won't trust someone the government won't trust. So he humiliates another witness (happily) with Hardison whispering the things he's reading on the No Fly list into his ear. They actually work really well together, Eliot realizes, and maybe that's why he's stuck around this long. Even though he might get caught in the crossfire when Wolfram & Hart shows up when this trial is over.

He's pretty proud of himself, actually (and Hardison, he did help after all—Eliot had another plan for this particular witness but Hardison's was much easier).

So closing argument rolls around and it's much of the same. Eliot proclaims how devastated the family is and talks about how absurd it is to think that Live Herbally could _not _have known how dangerous FastLife was (which is funny, because he's used the opposite form of this argument so many times). Eliot tells the jury that nothing can bring Ernesto Vargas back but that they can at least make sure that his family has the peace of mind that comes with knowing that the people responsible have been punished.

The defense's argument isn't nearly as good. He could have come up with a better one in his sleep, in fact (but, hey, he worked for an evil law firm).

When the verdict comes back and they've won? Best feeling Eliot's had in a long time (tempered by the fact he's probably going to get attacked by a demon shortly).

Nate bitches at him a bit for going "off-book" and not disclosing certain things ahead of time, so Eliot doesn't invite him to the celebratory dinner him and Hardison are having (since they did pretty much all the work, after all—and Eliot needs to make up that whole "stuffing him in a closet" thing). They go out to eat at a pretty nice restaurant (Hardison jokes that it's pretty much a date and Eliot ignores him).

After dinner Eliot and Hardison were walking back to the offices when they got jumped. By vampires. That seemed, to Eliot, to be a stupid thing to send after him, but hey, easy to kill so very good for him. Especially since there were five of them.

"Uh…Eliot? What's wrong with their faces?" Hardison stammered nervously.

Eliot didn't answer, but looked around for something wooden to kill them with. There was an old wooden bench he could rip apart by Hardison, so he circled in front of him and moved towards it.

"Eliot? You can…uh, protect me, right?" Hardison asked from behind him.

"Quiet, Hardison," Eliot replied, breaking off a piece of the old wood from the bench and flipping it in his hands. It was pointy enough to work. "Stay out of the way," he warned as the first vampire moved to attack.

Eliot made fairly quick work of them (he had very good aim) and turned back to Hardison just as the last one dusted.

"Wha? How? …What was that? What's going on? Eliot?" Hardison stammered, looking frightened. "Did they just…turn to dust?"

Eliot took a breath to try to explain.

Hardison put his hands up. "Wait! I don't think I want to know. Just—don't tell me and maybe I can forget this happened…or chalk it up to a very bad dream."

Eliot shrugged. "Sure," he could understand. He didn't really want to know either, after all.

"Thanks for protecting me," Hardison said.

"'S my job."

Hardison grinned. "Best. Date. Ever."

Eliot growled. "Shut up."

And just like that things were back to normal. If five easily dispensable vampires were all Wolfram & Hart could muster up this time (Eliot had noticed the monsters getting progressively easier to kill every time he used his real name and they sent another one after him, but he had thought maybe he was just getting better at this) then maybe they were done trying to kill him. Maybe they'd given up at this point. That would be nice.

Eliot grinned as he listened to Hardison ramble on about him being some kind of warrior or something from that game he played. Eliot never really listened to the actual words Hardison said at times like this, but the sound of chatter was actually pleasant, he had discovered. Maybe Wolfram & Hart would give up now. All Eliot knew was that if they didn't, he would protect his team. Because he actually maybe kinda-sorta liked them. A little.

So things were back to normal (although Eliot would have to get Hardison to stop calling this a date).

And that lawyer thing? Eliot totally rocked it.

* * *

A/N: XD So what do you think? Should I write more stuff like this? Review please!


	2. The Harmony Equation

Disclaimer: I do not own Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt's _Angel_ or John Rogers, Chris Downey, and Dean Devlin's_ Leverage_.

A/N: So, I felt that this needed more because I had a great idea for where to take it. Also, I like "The 12 Step Job." So, ta-da! I tried to keep stuff that's actually in the episode to a minimum since you've seen the episode and know what's going on and this is just a between-the-scenes/lines thing.

* * *

The Harmony Equation

* * *

Eliot wasn't sure what was worse: the fact that there was a vampire working in the offices below Leverage Consulting or the fact that he couldn't do anything about it. He had figured this out last week (sometime between winning the Vargas trial and coming back to work to see Nate in a meeting with what he guessed was a new client) when he had bumped into the girl in the hallway and realized that he recognized her.

All in all, he guessed it wasn't that big of a deal. Harmony was truly bad at being evil and she seemed set on trying to be normal. Eliot couldn't be sure, but he guessed that she had some friends in higher places, because she had some kind of charm that helped her go out in sunlight for limited periods of time before she started being, you know, on fire. Like a normal vampire. And he only knew this because she was very excited about showing said charm to him as soon as she recognized him as "that guy, the one that Angel hated and tried to kill" (which was so _not_ the way he wanted to be remembered by _anyone_, but Harmony wasn't the brightest bulb so he guessed that was all she could really associate with him).

He'd have to ask her about it next time he saw her. Because he couldn't very well kill someone that one, would be missed by coworkers, and two, the team had probably seen around (they were very observant).

So he wasn't sure what to do about the situation. She was, after all, a vampire (and therefore soulless), but she was too, well, _dense_ to be evil. He supposed that this meant he'd just keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't try to eat his teammates. Because that would be bad.

He was still pondering The Harmony Situation (yes, it deserved a real title) when Nate came to get him for the meeting about the new job. Which was really just what he needed because he'd been really bored since the Vargas trial had ended. Mostly because Nate was still mad at him and kept trying to get more information about him. Well, the Lindsey McDonald him. At least Hardison seemed to have given up (although he attributed this to Hardison trying to block the whole Eliot-dusted-5-vamps-in-front-of-me thing and therefore not wanting to get into it).

As Nate explained the basics to him, Eliot couldn't help but get a little frustrated. This really didn't seem like their kind of job (although, many of the jobs they took seemed that way at first). Maybe Eliot was pissed about The Harmony Situation, or maybe he was just pissed at Nate for all the nagging and questions, but he couldn't help but create a big scene about it.

"I don't understand. I mean, she has _all _the company's monthly statements. She—why can't she just sue the firm?"

"Yeah, well have fun with your seven year lawsuit against a Wall Street firm with your pro-bono mall lawyer."

"Seriously, I could—I have contacts that could help her. This isn't our thing."

"Eliot—"

"Nate. This is a courtroom thing, not a thief thing. Besides, who said anything about a pro-bono mall lawyer? I'm talking about professional get-people-shit-tons-of-money lawyers."

"No, no. We have to find this Jack Hurley. Hardison, run it."

So Eliot quietly sulked while the team was briefed (although he still participated because he wasn't an idiot, in fact he was probably smarter than all of them except maybe Hardison, and he wanted to make sure that the team understood that).

The guy was a stupid, patternless addict. And Eliot _so_ didn't want to be doing this. But, hey, strippers were nice. After some arguing, Eliot and Hardison got into Eliot's suburban (one of his many cars and less conspicuous than say, his old truck or really nice sports car) and drove around to all of the guy's favorite haunts. Hardison seemed pretty set on only talking about the job and not bringing up the whole vampire battle thing, so the car was very quiet.

Eliot was getting incredibly agitated by the fifth or sixth place. Hardison had forced him to stop so he could get a slushy thing from some fast food chain (the only reason Eliot did so was that he figured he still kind of owed Hardison for the vampire thing). They were stopping outside the twelfth place when Hardison spilled his slushy thing (which was _blue_ and totally going to stain his nice, clean carpeting).

Eliot couldn't help but explode at the poor kid and yell at him about cleaning the shit up when they got back (and he was glad Hardison didn't seem to take it that badly because later Eliot knew he would reflect on this and feel guilty yet again because he'd rather not scare the kid as he kind of liked him). Luckily Hardison and him had one of those semi-friendly insulting banter moments afterwards so all seemed good.

When the gang guys showed up Eliot was glad for a chance to take out some of the pent-up anger he had. So he did. Viciously.

"You ever thought about the need for anger management?" Hardison questioned after Eliot forcibly removed the gun from Hardison's completely-useless-at-aiming hand.

"Shut up and get in the car," Eliot grumbled as Hardison followed the order and they went to meet the team at Hurley's crash site.

Eliot was still in a very bad mood and he could tell that the rest of the team could tell, but he went along with the plan to put Hurley in rehab (which was actually not that bad, as far as plans went—putting the target in a limited space that they would have complete control of).

So Eliot and Hardison went back to the office while everyone else got set up in Second Act. On the way over to the elevators (after Hardison had cleaned out his car to his satisfaction) Harmony caught sight of them. Eliot groaned as she called out to him.

"Ooh! Hi, Eliot!" she called as she ran happily over to hug him (and he didn't _do _hugs, so it was very, _very_ annoying—especially since she wore that weird perfume which _had_ to be overwhelming to her vampiric sense of smell). Eliot was glad that he had managed to convince her that his name was and had always been Eliot Spencer, though (sometimes ditziness was apparently a blessing), because otherwise the situation would have been even more awkward.

"Uh…hi, Harmony…" he managed to reply while prying her off of him.

"I'm so glad I caught you on my way out! I was thinking that maybe we could do dinner this weekend? So we could catch up. I haven't talked to anyone but Willow in _years_ and I just thought—"

"Sure, Harmony, sure," Eliot interrupted (he did have things he wanted to ask her about, after all), "but I'm in the middle of something right now, so…"

"Ooooh, yay!" Harmony squealed (she really was like a 12-year-old and that made him wince—she was, after all, probably going to live for another 200 years), "So, here's my number," she said, handing him an actual business card (which was not what he expected—it wasn't pink, for one, although there was a unicorn involved), "and call me this weekend! Bye!" Eliot tucked the card away and stared after her in shock as she practically skipped over to the exit.

As soon as she was gone, Hardison burst into laughter. "Dude, seriously? Her? You're dating her?"

"One, no. I'm not. Two, you know her?" Eliot replied as they got into the elevator.

"Yeah. She works in the offices below ours. Sometimes she brings donuts in and gives one to me. But seriously? Dinner?" He replied, bursting into another fit of laughs.

"Shut up, Hardison. She used to work for the same company I worked for. She's not the brightest bulb, but she knows some of the people I used to know and I'd like to get some information about them out of her," Eliot replied.

Hardison's laughter stopped. "You mean the whole lawyer thing?"

Eliot nodded.

"Oh, so you…"

"I just…want to know what's going on with the people I used to work with, okay? And this might be my only chance as she's too dense to remember that none of them liked me," Eliot explained as they made their way into the offices. It was mostly the truth, so he didn't feel too bad about it.

Hardison looked like he was about to say something else, but closed his mouth and went to his computer instead. Eliot shrugged and went to his office. Things had been getting more and more strained the more time that got put between them and the whole I-killed-vampires thing, so Eliot shrugged it off. He'd find a way to make it up to the kid eventually. Maybe he'd buy him one of those small disposable laptops that were useful on jobs as they could just be left behind if needed. Or maybe 5 of them. Yeah, that would be good. Eliot made a mental note to find out which kind Hardison liked and then make some calls to get some sent here.

* * *

The next day Eliot had the computers with him when he came into the office (he really did work that fast because let's face it, he's an ex-evil lawyer and has connections). Everyone else was already at Second Act, so it was just him and Hardison.

"What's in the box?" the geek asked as Eliot came into the conference room.

Eliot set the box down next to Hardison. "It's a gift. For you. To make up for what happened after the Vargas trial. I know you said you wanted to forget about it, but you've been really antsy and I wanted to get you something," he explained, feeling strange at being so…_nice_ to someone in such an outright manner.

Hardison got a look on his face that reminded him of the nephew that he never got to see and tore open the box, removing the first of the 5 laptops in it. "You bought me computers?" Hardison asked, taking the other four out, "5 of them? And they're the exact kind that I like?"

Eliot nodded, secretly smirking to himself on the inside (it wouldn't do to look happy on the outside).

"How'd you know what to get?"

"Now that would be telling," Eliot replied, taking the box away, "have fun."

Hardison nodded with a grin, "Thanks, Eliot! This is the most awesome present ever!"

Eliot actually did grin then—his back was tuned, Hardison couldn't see it—as he made his way to the kitchen for a drink. It was about this time that Sophie came into the office.

"You two have to find Hurley's car."

By the time Eliot and Hardison made it to the parking garage on the ticket, things seemed to be back to normal for them and the brotherly bickering was back on track. Eliot was extremely relieved about this because he would've hated having to quit the team.

Of course, that might not be an issue if the damn _bomb_ he'd just found under the seat Hardison was in went off. Eliot tried to get Hardison to calm down (and himself too, because bombs usually meant explosions, which he wasn't fond of) as he thought of ways to disarm the thing. He'd really rather not be in an explosion. When the only thing he could come up with was to literally put him and Hardison in a protective bubble (which he did _not_ have the supplies for, because who carried around supplies for protective bubble spells), he knew they were probably screwed. He could probably manage to put up a protection spell, but not without using his own life energy as a focus (he wasn't a natural witch, he actually needed to do rituals and stuff rather than being able to pop lightning out of thin air), which would end with him unconscious. Which would also be bad.

Luckily it was about this time Hardison's babbling became useful and he was able to direct Eliot under the hood to the computer part of the car's wires so that they could hopefully disarm the thing. When it didn't go off, Eliot had never been so glad in his life that Hardison was a complete and utter geek. He grabbed the bomb from under the car to look at later.

After getting out of the two-gangs-holding-guns-on-us problem alive as well, Eliot and Hardison made their way to the rest of the team as quickly as possible. This day was turning into quite the adventure (even more so than that whole lets-kill-the-Circle-of-the-Black-Thorne thing—seeing Harmony had reminded him of how much pain he owed Angel for that).

Also, apparently Hardison still hasn't let the whole this-was-pretty-much-a-date thing go either because why else would he feel the need to tell the receptionist they were _together_ and not just that he was adopted or something equally as logical and much less creepy. Eliot growled at him as they walked away. "Dammit, Hardison! Not cool!"

"It was the only thing I could think of!" Hardison complained as they made their way towards the other three.

"If you ever do it again, I'mma beat your ass," Eliot replied, turning Hardison towards him and glaring to make sure he got the message.

"Right. No more," Hardison agreed, looking fully apologetic. Eliot let him go and they went in to meet with the team.

The rest of the day was too busy for him to get much time to think between looking for people who knew Hurley and getting them to talk and keeping track of Hardison and worrying about Nate scaling walls while deprived of alcohol and trying to keep everyone alive. By the time the job was over, Eliot was exhausted and just wanted to go home. It was pure rotten luck that caused him to run into Harmony while he was going out of the building with Sophie.

"Eliot! Hi!" she squealed in that really obnoxious, high-pitched, way-too-happy way of hers.

Eliot barely held back his groan as he turned around. "Hey, Harmony…" He swore he could hear Sophie laughing at him.

She came clicking over in her heels (but luckily didn't hug him this time). "You look exhausted."

"That would be because I am," Eliot replied, trying really hard to stay friendly as he still wanted to talk to her (and he'd rather not have her mad at him and try to get her revenge by eating him or his friends).

"Oh. Well, I'll just leave you alone then. Are we going to dinner tomorrow?" Harmony replied with a way-too-bright smile.

Eliot thought it over for a second. He hadn't had time to figure out anything relating to the impending Harmony Dinner Problem. He glanced over at Sophie, who was hiding a smile behind her hand. "Sure. Seven?"

"Awesome! We can meet at that Italian place on the corner?"

"Sure," Eliot replied, pretty certain he was going to regret this entire business later, but knowing that he really wanted to figure out if Harmony knew anything about the rest of the crew from L.A. and discover where she got that charm from.

"Great! This is going to be so much fun!" she replied, hugging him before he realized what was happening and then running off. Eliot really did groan and roll his eyes then before turning back to Sophie.

"What was all that then?" she questioned.

"Harmony used to work for the same company as me and we vaguely knew each other. I think she's just excited to see a familiar face."

"But…dinner? That's not like you Eliot. And she's…"

"Really obnoxious, I know. But there's a few things I'm curious about and I figure she might know something. I know that she's kept in contact with at least one of our coworkers…" Not true. Harmony had mentioned Willow, who he only knew by reputation, but he bet she was responsible for that charm Harmony had for the sunlight. "Anyways, I just want to talk to her and see if she can get me into contact with someone." True, this time. He'd actually really like the chance to talk to the old L.A. crew (or what was left of them) about Wolfram & Hart.

Sophie hid a smile. "Are you sure you won't want to kill her before dinner's over?"

"I'm pretty sure I already want to…" Eliot grumbled. Sophie laughed again and they parted ways. Dinner with a vampire. What could go wrong?

* * *

Eliot debated whether or not to call Harmony and cancel their dinner, but decided she'd just be twice as insufferable the next time she saw him at the office building. She'd also then have his phone number. So, he dressed nicer than normal and got to the restaurant at exactly seven (it wouldn't do for him to be late as that was just rude). Harmony was standing right outside looking for him (actually looking really good—that girl knew how to dress well, too bad she wasn't very smart).

"Hi!" she called with a wave as she caught sight of him.

Eliot plastered on a grin (he was a conman, after all, he could grift) and hurried over before she made a bigger scene, allowing her to give him another hug (she was very friendly, especially for a vampire). He offered her his arm and they made their way into the restaurant.

They made small talk through the appetizer until Harmony brought up L.A. (he was glad she had brought it up because now he didn't have to find a way to).

"So why did Angel want to kill you?" she asked rather suddenly.

Eliot looked up at her in shock for a brief moment until the waiter came by. They gave their orders and he left again, allowing Eliot to return his attention to the question. "He thought I was evil."

"Were you?"

"Not anymore."

"That's what I don't get. Just because he was the supposed champion, he got a free pass on everything. Everyone did what he said. It's stupid."

Eliot grinned, suddenly finding kinship with Harmony. "Exactly. Besides, if Angel was looking at Angel from the outside, he wouldn't even like himself."

Harmony giggled as Eliot took a sip of his wine (Harmony had ordered it—he normally didn't drink wine—and it was actually pretty good).

"I've been meaning to ask you, who made you the sunlight charm?"

"Willow did. She's pretty cool for a geek. She's the only one of all of them that I talk to still. I have to get a new one every year."

"Time limit on the charm?"

Harmony nodded. "Willow's _so _nice though. She's willing to give me the chance to be normal, even though Angel says I'm evil."

"Seems he thinks that 'bout a lot of people…" Eliot replied as their food arrived. There was silence for a few moments as they started to eat (it was surprisingly un-awkward given that they barely knew each other). "Do you know where they set up shop and all that?"

"Cleveland. Willow said something about another Hellmouth."

"Seems…busy," Eliot replied, holding back a laugh at the way Harmony truly dug into her plate of pasta.

"Living in Sunnydale was awful, and I guess Cleveland is a lot like that. So I don't know why they'd go there voluntarily," Harmony shrugged.

"Hero types. They're not all there," Eliot replied, causing her to laugh again.

"I don't get to do this often," Harmony explained, "I mean, I don't need to eat really, so there's no point in doing so unless I'm invited by someone…"

"Where do you get your blood from?" Eliot asked, finally voicing a question he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to.

"Butcher shops. It's mainly pig's blood, but every once in a while you can get your hands on something nice and exotic that really helps the taste. I'm trying to be good now since I'm not very great at being evil."

Eliot laughed. At least she realized that she wasn't cut out for the evil shindig.

The rest of the dinner passed rather easily and Eliot found himself actually having fun. When you were having dinner with a vampire, there was really no reason to hide anything about your job or the supernatural or any of the people he'd killed and/or maimed over the years. It was nice to be able to relax somewhat (and he _never_ would have though that he would be getting along so well with Harmony). After the initial giddiness at having someone to talk to, Harmony actually calmed down into a much more tolerable personality, even if she still wasn't very bright. And she even laughed when he told the grosser bits of some of his jobs (the parts where Hardison or the others would cringe and tell him to be quiet).

"We should do this again," Harmony announced as Eliot finished paying the check (he was a gentleman, after all).

Eliot paused for a moment as they made their way outside. "Yeah, we should," he finally agreed (because he'd had fun, despite swearing he wouldn't).

He would never hear the end of this from Hardison and Sophie.

* * *

A/N: I like Harmony. She's completely ridiculous. Anyways, tell me what you think! I'm going to take the 'Complete' tag off of this, but it probably won't get updated all that often. I'm trying to decide what to do with this and which direction to go, especially in that 6 month break between seasons 1 and 2.


	3. The Revenge Equation

Disclaimer: I do not own Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt's _Angel_ or John Rogers, Chris Downey, and Dean Devlin's_ Leverage_.

A/N: Even more! This one takes place around "The First David Job." Again, keeping actual episode conversations to a minimum. Enjoy!

* * *

The Revenge Equation

* * *

"How was your _date_?" Hardison asked when Eliot came into the office Monday morning.

"It wasn't a date," Eliot growled as he sat down at the conference table. Sophie laughed. Nate and Parker looked on in confusion.

"Date?" Nate questioned, "You're going on dates?"

"No," Eliot insisted.

"He is," Hardison interrupted, "with the secretary from the offices below ours."

"You mean the squeaky, bubbly, blonde one? Melody or something?" Nate questioned.

"Harmony. Her name is Harmony. And it wasn't a date. She used to be a secretary for the law company I worked for. We were catching up," Eliot explained with a growl. It was mostly true. They hadn't worked there at the same time or anything, but the team didn't need to know that.

"Seemed like a date to me," Sophie put in, "she seemed very happy to see you the other day when you made the dinner plans."

"She's just like that…" Eliot muttered. "It wasn't a date."

"Keep telling yourself that…" Hardison replied with a grin. Eliot glared. Nate started the meeting.

After the meeting Eliot retreated to his office and shut the door so that he didn't have to deal with the crew teasing him about his not-date. Which it wasn't. A date, that is. Because Eliot didn't date. Especially bubbly blonde vampires (but now that he thought about it, dating a vampire might be the way to go for him—they weren't squeamish about blood and they were useful in a fight, although the soulless thing was a downside).

Eliot was about to go out to lunch when he heard Harmony in the lobby. Great. Now he'd never hear the end of it. He stood up and ventured out into the lobby to do damage control.

"Hi Eliot!" Harmony beamed when she caught sight of him.

"Hey, Harmony," Eliot replied (much less enthusiastically) as he walked over to where she was standing with Sophie and Nate.

"I got a call from Willow this morning and she's in town. We're going out to lunch. I was wondering if you wanted to come along?"

Eliot considered the pros and cons for a bit. On the plus side, he would get to meet Willow. On the minus side, she would probably have a lot of questions to ask him. His curiosity over the witch won out. "Sure," he replied, waving a quick goodbye to the team as he led Harmony out the door.

When they got to the café Harmony led them inside to a back table with a redheaded woman he assumed was Willow sitting at it.

"Hi Willow!" Harmony greeted with what Eliot was quickly realizing was her customary hug. "I'm not sure you ever got the chance to meet Eliot?" she introduced as she set her things down in one of the chairs and then excused herself to the bathroom.

"Eliot?" Willow questioned.

"Formerly Lindsey McDonald," Eliot admitted.

"Now him I've heard of," Willow smiled, shaking his hand, "I see you survived the wrath of Angel after all."

"I'm talented like that," Eliot replied (hey, it was true, so he felt he deserved credit).

Willow laughed and they sat down. "Harmony knows all this?"

"I think only vaguely. She didn't remember my name so I just told her the one I'm using now to simplify things for her."

"She is a bit simple," Willow replied, "but she's nice and she's really trying to be normal."

"Yeah, I noticed that part. So what brings you here?"

"Harmony's charm is about to run out, so I'm here to replace it," Willow replied as Harmony came back and the waiter came by to take their orders.

Eliot already knew a lot about Angel's dream team and the so-called "Scoobies" so he didn't actually need to ask many questions to satisfy his curiosity about that aspect of Willow's work.

"So do you still do anything supernatural-y?" Willow asked him halfway through the meal.

Eliot shook his head. "I try to stay away from it. I do spells every once in a while, mostly healing stuff."

"Really?" Willow asked, seeming to perk up.

"Yeah. It's why I wanted to meet you, actually. As an amateur magick user it's great to get a chance to meet a witch as powerful as you."

"Aw, thanks…" Willow blushed, looking down at her plate. Eliot grinned. He obviously still had it. "If you want, I can give you my number and if you ever need any tips I can help you out."

"That'd be great," Eliot replied, exchanging numbers with her.

The rest of the lunch was incredibly friendly and passed by quickly with exchanged stories of Angel's idiocy. Eliot found himself having a really good time yet again. It made him wonder why he hadn't tried harder to get on Angel's good side and join his team (although his general dislike of the guy seemed like a good reason to have not done so). Eliot really liked Willow too. She was incredibly sweet and funny (even if she was a bit of a geek) and reminded him of his little sister.

When he returned to the offices after (a quite excellent) lunch everyone was sitting there waiting for him.

"What?" he asked as he took off his jacket.

"What was that all about?" Nate questioned (much like a father, actually; it was a little disturbing).

"Lunch. With a former colleague that happened to be in town today. I don't see how it's any of your business. It's not going to affect y'all in any way." Eliot replied as he turned to his office. Their questions were getting old fast.

* * *

Nate's intervention was a bust (except for the fact that he accepted the premise of stealing the David). Sophie had come to him really late one night with the idea of giving Nate an intervention to get him to stop drinking and Eliot had agreed purely to get her out of his apartment (but the more he thought about it, the more he knew it needed to be done).

But it didn't go well. In fact, tonight Nate seemed even more drunk than usual. Eliot knew that he was supposed to seem drunk for the con, but that didn't explain the alcohol on his breath. Eliot really hoped this didn't go south anytime soon because he wasn't sure that he could protect everyone if it did. Eliot decided it was in his best interest to ignore Nate as much as possible and focus on his character (he didn't get to grift often, so he wanted to prove that he was good at it).

There wasn't much that he could do besides his part in the con anyways.

* * *

Eliot had known this job was going to go south as soon as Maggie entered the equation (she would have even if he hadn't brought her over to the group, he was sure, so it wasn't his fault). They should have quit when they were ahead, but Nate was drunk and bent on revenge, so they kept going. And now the offices were blown up and here he was standing in a circle looking at the faces of people who he actually liked and was _this close_ to calling family, ready to say goodbye. They had agreed, after all, that it would be better for everyone if they dropped off the map and didn't see each other for at least six months.

So here he was. Ready to leave behind the people that he trusted most (even if he wouldn't admit it to himself most of the time). They were professionals, after all; they knew that they were blown. They couldn't operate like this. So they would scatter.

But Eliot was surprisingly uneasy with the decision. He took a deep breath and looked at his teammates for what would be the last time for at least six months. Then he turned around and walked away.

To be honest, he didn't go far. He couldn't bring himself to do so yet. So he went to Harmony's apartment. "Hey," he greeted quietly when she opened the door.

"Eliot! When your offices blew up earlier I was worried you hadn't made it out!" she replied, hugging him tightly before letting him inside.

"I did. We all did."

"Do you need anything?" Harmony offered. Eliot had learned in the time he had spent with Harmony that she was actually incredibly pleasant most of the time, and also a lot smarter than she seemed (although she still wasn't a brain).

"Some water would be nice," Eliot replied, sitting down on her (disturbingly pink) couch. Harmony's living room was a total eyesore between the pink and the unicorns, but he'd take anything over the cell he was sure to wind up in if Sterling caught up to him.

Harmony came back over and handed him a glass of water, taking a seat herself. "What happened?"

Eliot sighed, gulping down the glass of water before looking over at Harmony. They had had plenty of conversations about what he did (Harmony found the stories hilarious), so he didn't feel that he should lie to her at this juncture. "A job went south. _Way _south. I need to get out of town for a few months."

"Well then what are you still doing here?" Harmony exclaimed as she jumped up from the couch.

Eliot winced and held out a hand to calm her down. "I have broken ribs and a concussion, Harm, I can't travel very far yet. It would be better if I lay low for a while."

"I'll hide you, then," Harmony replied determinedly.

Eliot grinned back up at her. "I was hoping you'd say that."

To tell the truth, Eliot really did need to lay low. He wasn't moving well enough to be able to get away from anyone that caught sight of him and if he hung out long enough they'd stop being so vigilant in looking for him nearby.

* * *

It took a week for Eliot to heal enough that he felt he could fight his way out of most anything he might encounter. He said his goodbyes to Harmony and set out to Cleveland. He had some things he wanted to straighten out, after all, and he had already called and asked Willow to run interference for him. There were a little less than three months until the David Gallery opened, and even though they had promised to scatter for six months, there was no way he was leaving that job unfinished. He wanted to spend the time before the gallery opening setting a few things straight with Angel and company (especially now that he had the "Hey, I help people" ammo to throw at them).

So he hugged Harmony goodbye and headed out. It took him a couple days to make it to Cleveland, and then he followed Willow's directions to their home base, a magic shop informatively called The Magic Box. It was a Sunday, which Willow had informed him was "update meeting day," which basically meant that anyone who could be there would be there. She had also confirmed that Angel was indeed in town, meaning that Eliot should probably watch his back.

Eliot took a breath and headed into the shop. The bell rang as he entered, but he didn't see anyone in the immediate vicinity. He resituated his duffel bag on his shoulder and walked towards the checkout counter. As he approached, Willow came running into the store from what seemed to be a back room. "Eliot! Glad you made it in one piece," She greeted, standing in front of him with a grin.

Eliot held out a hand for her to shake (they had only met once before and Eliot wasn't sure what the protocol was for greetings here), which she took with a smile. "Me too," he admitted with a small return smile.

"Right now it's just me, Giles, and Buffy here, but everyone else should start trickling in soon. You can come on back, if you want," she offered.

"Sure," Eliot agreed, following her back into what was actually a conference room (bigger than the one at Leverage HQ, but less technological). There were two people inside, sitting at the far end of the table: an older man with glasses he assumed to be Giles and a petite blonde that he knew was Buffy. They both looked up when Willow led him in. Willow took his bag and set it down in the corner nearest the door before leading him over to the other two.

"Who's this?" Buffy questioned, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow skeptically.

"This is Eliot Spencer," Willow introduced, "He's an old acquaintance of Angel's L.A. crew."

"Never heard of him," Buffy replied shortly.

"That's because I went by Lindsey McDonald back then," Eliot offered.

"The lawyer? Angel said he killed you."

"He tried."

Buffy looked him over before offering her hand with a small grin, "In that case, good to meet you. Why are you here?"

"I decided it was time to set a couple things straight and I had a break in my…normal job," Eliot replied with a small grin.

"And what is your normal job?" the man Eliot had assumed was Giles (and who was apparently British) asked as he stood up.

"Retrieval," Eliot replied, "I didn't catch your name?"

"Rupert Giles," he introduced, shaking Eliot's hand himself.

"Well, Mr. Giles, it's good to meet you. Watcher, right?" Buffy and Giles glared at him. "Hey, I remember some of the things I read in Angel's file back in my lawyer days. Most of them, actually."

"How nice," Buffy replied sarcastically.

Eliot held his hands up in a sign of surrender. "I'm not planning on working against y'all in any way. Those days are behind me. Like I said, I'm looking to set a few things straight. Mainly that I'm not evil."

"And what exactly does one do in the job of 'Retrieval'?" Buffy questioned.

"Exactly what it sounds like. I retrieve things."

"You're a thief," Buffy guessed.

"Yes," Eliot admitted, "mainly I'm a thief."

Buffy and Giles glanced at each other. Buffy shrugged. "Maybe I should call you sometime to retrieve a priceless artifact."

"I wouldn't turn you down if you did. Whatever I can do to help y'all, I will," Eliot replied. He had grown enough in the years since L.A. to realize (and admit) he had been on the wrong side of that business. If he could do something to make up for that, like helping them get their hands on something they needed, he would.

"Good to know," Buffy smiled, "Welcome to our lair."

"Thanks," Eliot replied, watching as the three of them got settled into their chairs. He stayed back a little, not wanting to make himself vulnerable to attack by getting too comfortable.

"Do you always lurk?" Willow questioned, turning towards him.

"When in an unfamiliar place? Yes," Eliot replied simply.

Willow shrugged and turned back to the other two right as someone came in through The Magic Box.

"Anyone here?" a voice called from the shop that Eliot was sure he recognized from that last year in L.A. Spike. This could go really well or really terribly. He slammed into the room with quite the dramatic strut and continued over to collapse into the chair next to Buffy. "What's the deal here?"

"Spike," Buffy greeted with an eye roll, "get your feet off the table."

To his credit, Spike obeyed. Then he caught sight of Eliot, standing suddenly in order to make his way over. "Lindsey McDonald. Thought you were dead. Why are you here?"

"One, it's Eliot Spencer now. Two, obviously not. Three, don't come any closer," Eliot replied, preparing himself to be attacked by the guy.

"Answer me and maybe I won't," Spike replied, stepping closer.

"He's here as an ally, Spike," Buffy interjected, "sit down."

Spike turned to look at Buffy before turning back to Eliot. Eliot had a split second to prepare before Spike lunged. He sidestepped and yanked Spike's arm back, slamming him against the wall and twisting it harshly. Everyone else in the room jumped up in surprise. "Hey! Let go!" Spike protested.

"You gonna attack me again?"

"No! Let go!"

Eliot acquiesced, letting go of Spike and stepping back to allow him to get away. The vampire glared as he went back to his seat.

"Impressive," Buffy commented as she settled back down as well.

Eliot shrugged. "I train." It was a vast understatement, but still true. He didn't know these people well enough to open up to them. Besides, if they really wanted to learn more about him, they had the means to find it out (especially if Willow was the computer whiz he'd been led to believe). Any further comments were put on hold by the arrival of Angel through the back door; the one Eliot was standing next to.

All it took was one glance around the room for Angel to catch sight of Eliot. He growled. "McDonald. You're supposed to be dead."

Eliot shrugged, "Obviously I'm not."

Angel growled and came closer (Eliot cursed internally when he found that he was still incredibly intimidated by the man). "Why are you here?"

"To prove a point. I'm not the bad guy, Angel. I haven't been for a while now."

"It's true," Willow interjected, "He's not the same guy."

"Oh really?" Angel questioned, stepping even closer. Eliot tried not to back away (and succeeded quite well, he might add). "Then who exactly are you now? What do you do?"

"Eliot Spencer," Eliot introduced, "Retrieval Specialist."

"Thief."

"If you'd like."

"That's not that much change."

"I believe it is."

"It's illegal."

"But I help people."

"By stealing from them?"

"You used to help people by undermining the law."

"Evil lawyers. I undermined evil lawyers. Like you."

"And I undermine evil rich people. By conning them. See? Change."

Angel growled and stepped closer, grabbing Eliot's arm and trying to force him against the wall. Eliot stood his ground, twisting out of Angel's grip.

"He has a point Angel. If that's really what he does now, it's pretty much the same thing we do except through conning and thieving rather than the killing of evil demon-y things," Buffy pointed out.

Eliot grinned at Angel, which on second thought was a terrible idea because it made Angel angry enough to attack him. Angel's fist flew right at his face. He dodged to the right and grabbed his arm, pulling him off balance and shoving him into the wall. Angel turned back towards him right as a group of people came into the room to take their seats at the conference table. They stared in shock as Angel lunged towards Eliot again. Eliot jumped out of the way quickly, cursing the confined spaces in which this fight was happening.

"Angel! Stop it!" he heard Buffy order as Angel threw another punch at him. He grabbed Angel's fist and twisted, using his other hand to break Angel's nose before shifting his weight to knock Angel's legs out from under him and force the guy onto his back. He took a second to congratulate himself on finally being able to beat the guy as he stepped back.

He grinned as Angel reached up to his nose to put it back in place. "When did you get so good at fighting?" he grumbled as he started to get up.

"Sometime between you trying to kill me, and failing, might I add, and now," Eliot replied smugly.

"All right!" Eliot heard from one of the newcomers, "I like you. Anyone who can put Deadboy there in his place is okay in my book." Eliot turned towards the speaker to find a young, dark-haired man with an eyepatch over his left eye. "Xander Harris," he introduced himself with a goofy grin, holding out a hand.

"Eliot Spencer," Eliot replied, shaking the hand as he kept an eye on Angel.

"He's Lindsey McDonald. That lawyer that was giving me trouble all the time back in L.A." Angel interrupted.

"That was you?" Xander asked, "You still evil?"

"No," Eliot replied simply.

"Okay then. Cool. Nice to meet you, then," Xander said, sitting down at the table. Everyone else except Angel followed his example and got settled down.

"So why are you here, Lindsey?" Angel asked, staying away from him this time. Buffy motioned for him to go ahead and explain, so he did.

"First of all, the name's Eliot Spencer now, so use it. As to the reason I'm here, it's pretty simple. I ran into Harmony while I was working in L.A. and—"

"She's still there?" Angel questioned.

"Yes, and she's doing great, actually, trying to be good, so leave her alone. Anyways, I saw her and it reminded me of the way things were left between me and all of you guys. I decided to set things straight."

"By beating me up?"

"That was your fault. Besides, aren't you supposed to be a champion or something?" Eliot replied, catching sight of a few of the people around the table hiding smiles.

"I wasn't expecting it…" Angel grumbled.

"I also wanted to offer my services to your cause. I'm out of a job for the next ten weeks, so I figured I might as well find something useful to do," Eliot finished, looking at Buffy as he did so.

"Why are you out of a job?" Xander asked, "If you're a thief, don't you pick your jobs?"

Eliot considered for a second not explaining, but decided that if he wanted to be on good terms with these people, he should start with honesty. Besides, if they started working together he'd wind up explaining all of it anyways. "My team and I had to scatter after an incident with a job back in L.A. I'm going back to finish the job in ten weeks."

"With your team?" Giles asked.

"No. We agreed to scatter for six months, but I just can't leave it unfinished," Eliot admitted, "And until then, I'd like to offer my specific set of skills to you. If you don't have anything, I can be on my way. There's always plenty of work to find. Some of it more unsavory than others, but I can find something good to do."

Buffy looked to a couple other people at the table before turning back to Eliot. "If you don't mind sticking around for a bit, there's a few things we might be able to use your help on."

Eliot grinned. This should be lots of fun.

* * *

A/N: Sorry this took so long. I was majorly distracted. But here it is! I felt that Eliot needed some sort of purpose for the time between "The First David Job" and "The Second David Job" so I sent him to bug Angel. Tell me what you think.


End file.
